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Alex Pomarol

Publications and source records attributed to Alex Pomarol.

At least 37 records · Page 2Linked to original sources

Electroweak Precision Tests in High-Energy Diboson Processes

A promising avenue to perform precision tests of the SM at the LHC is to measure differential cross-sections at high invariant mass, exploiting in this way the growth with the energy of the corrections induced by heavy new physics. We classify the leading growing-with-energy effects in longitudinal diboson and in associated Higgs production processes, showing that they can be encapsulated in four real "high-energy primary" parameters. We assess the reach on these parameters at the LHC and at future hadronic colliders, focusing in particular on the fully leptonic $WZ$ channel that appears particularly promising. The reach is found to be superior to existing constraints by one order of magnitude, providing a test of the SM electroweak sector at the per-mille level, in competition with LEP bounds. Unlike LHC Run-1 bounds, which only apply to new physics effects that are much larger than the SM in the high-energy tail of the distributions, the probe we study applies to a wider class of new physics scenarios where such large departures are not expected.

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Flavor hierarchies from dynamical scales

One main obstacle for any beyond the SM (BSM) scenario solving the hierarchy problem is its potentially large contributions to electric dipole moments. An elegant way to avoid this problem is to have the light SM fermions couple to the BSM sector only through bilinears, $\bar ff$. This possibility can be neatly implemented in composite Higgs models. We study the implications of dynamically generating the fermion Yukawa couplings at different scales, relating larger scales to lighter SM fermions. We show that all flavor and CP-violating constraints can be easily accommodated for a BSM scale of few TeV, without requiring any extra symmetry. Contributions to B physics are mainly mediated by the top, giving a predictive pattern of deviations in $ΔF=2$ and $ΔF=1$ flavor observables that could be seen in future experiments.

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Patterns of Strong Coupling for LHC Searches

Even though the Standard Model (SM) is weakly coupled at the Fermi scale, a new strong dynamics involving its degrees of freedom may conceivably lurk at slightly higher energies, in the multi TeV range. Approximate symmetries provide a structurally robust context where, within the low energy description, the dimensionless SM couplings are weak, while the new strong dynamics manifests itself exclusively through higher-derivative interactions. We present an exhaustive classification of such scenarios in the form of effective field theories, paying special attention to new classes of models where the strong dynamics involves, along with the Higgs boson, the SM gauge bosons and/or the fermions. The IR softness of the new dynamics suppresses its effects at LEP energies, but deviations are in principle detectable at the LHC, even at energies below the threshold for production of new states. Our construction provides the so far unique structurally robust context where to motivate several searches in Higgs physics, diboson production, or WW scattering, which were so far poorly justified. Perhaps surprisingly, the interplay between weak coupling, strong coupling and derivatives, which is controlled by symmetries, can override the naive expansion in operator dimension, providing instances where dimension-8 dominates dimension-6, well within the domain of validity of the low energy effective theory. This result reveals the limitations of an analysis that is both ambitiously general and restricted to dimension-6 operators.

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What is the gamma gamma resonance at 750 GeV?

Run 2 LHC data show hints of a new resonance in the diphoton distribution at an invariant mass of 750 GeV. We analyse the data in terms of a new boson, extracting information on its properties and exploring theoretical interpretations. Scenarios covered include a narrow resonance and, as preliminary indications suggest, a wider resonance. If the width indications persist, the new particle is likely to belong to a strongly-interacting sector. We also show how compatibility between Run 1 and Run 2 data is improved by postulating the existence of an additional heavy particle, whose decays are possibly related to dark matter.

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Higgs Physics

With the discovery of the Higgs, we have access to a plethora of new physical processes that allow us to further test the SM and beyond. We show a convenient way to parametrize these physics using an effective theory for Higgs couplings, discussing the importance of the basis selection, predictions from a SM effective field theory, and possible ways to measure these couplings with special attention to the high-energy regime. Predictions from the MSSM and MCHM, with the comparison with data, are also provided.

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BSM Primary Effects

Using the predictive power of the effective field theory approach, we present a physical parametrization of the leading effects beyond the SM (BSM), that give us at present the best way to constrain heavy new-physics at low-energies. We show that other BSM effects are not independent from these ones, and we provide the explicit correlations. This information is useful to know where to primarily look for new physics in future experiments, and to know how this new physics is related to previous measurements, most importantly in electroweak-symmetry breaking processes or Higgs physics.

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Towards the Ultimate SM Fit to Close in on Higgs Physics

With the discovery of the Higgs at the LHC, experiments have finally addressed all aspects of the Standard Model (SM). At this stage, it is important to understand which windows for beyond the SM (BSM) physics are still open, and which are instead tightly closed. We address this question by parametrizing BSM effects with dimension-six operators and performing a global fit to the SM. We separate operators into different groups constrained at different levels, and provide independent bounds on their Wilson coefficients taking into account only the relevant experiments. Our analysis allows to assert in a model-independent way where BSM effects can appear in Higgs physics. In particular, we show that deviations from the SM in the differential distributions of h->Vff are related to other observables, such as triple gauge-boson couplings, and are then already constrained by present data. On the contrary, BR(h-> Z+gamma) can still hide large deviations from the SM.

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Is the 125 GeV Higgs the superpartner of a neutrino?

Recent LHC searches have provided strong evidence for the Higgs, a boson whose gauge quantum numbers coincide with those of a SM fermion, the neutrino. This raises the mandatory question of whether Higgs and neutrino can be related by supersymmetry. We study this possibility in a model in which an approximate R-symmetry acts as a lepton number. We show that Higgs physics resembles that of the SM-Higgs with the exception of a novel invisible decay into Goldstino and neutrino with a branching fraction that can be as large as ~10%. Based on naturalness criteria, only stops and sbottoms are required to be lighter than the TeV with a phenomenology dictated by the R-symmetry. They have novel decays into quarks+leptons that could be seen at the LHC, allowing to distinguish these scenarios from the ordinary MSSM.

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The Composite Higgs and Light Resonance Connection

Weinberg sum-rules have been used in the past to successfully predict the electromagnetic contribution to the charged-pion mass as a function of the meson masses. Following the same approach we calculate in the minimal composite Higgs model (MCHM) the Higgs mass as a function of the fermionic resonance masses. The simplicity of the method allows us to study several versions of the MCHM and show that a Higgs with a mass around 125 GeV requires, quite generically, fermionic resonances below the TeV, and therefore accessible at the LHC. We also examine the couplings of the Higgs to the SM fermions and calculate their deviation from the SM value.

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Composite Scalar Dark Matter

We show that the dark matter (DM) could be a light composite scalar $η$, emerging from a TeV-scale strongly-coupled sector as a pseudo Nambu-Goldstone boson (pNGB). Such state arises naturally in scenarios where the Higgs is also a composite pNGB, as in $O(6)/O(5)$ models, which are particularly predictive, since the low-energy interactions of $η$ are determined by symmetry considerations. We identify the region of parameters where $η$ has the required DM relic density, satisfying at the same time the constraints from Higgs searches at the LHC, as well as DM direct searches. Compositeness, in addition to justify the lightness of the scalars, can enhance the DM scattering rates and lead to an excellent discovery prospect for the near future. For a Higgs mass $m_h\simeq 125$ GeV and a pNGB characteristic scale $f \lesssim 1$ TeV, we find that the DM mass is either $m_η\simeq 50-70$ GeV, with DM annihilations driven by the Higgs resonance, or in the range 100-500 GeV, where the DM derivative interaction with the Higgs becomes dominant. In the former case the invisible Higgs decay to two DM particles could weaken the LHC Higgs signal.

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Probing the SM with Dijets at the LHC

The LHC has started to explore the TeV energy regime, probing the SM beyond LEP and Tevatron. We show how the dijet measurements at the LHC are able to test certain sectors of the SM at an unprecedented level. We provide the best bounds on all possible four-quark interactions and translate them into limits on the compositeness scale of the quarks and gluons. We also provide constraints on extra gauge bosons, Z', W' and G', and on new interactions proposed to explain the present measurement of the forward-backward asymmetry of the top.

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A Distorted MSSM Higgs Sector from Low-Scale Strong Dynamics

We show that when supersymmetry is broken at the TeV scale by strong dynamics, the Higgs sector of the MSSM can be drastically modified. This arises from possible sizeable mixings of the Higgs with the resonances of the strong sector. In particular the mass of the lightest Higgs boson can be significantly above the MSSM bound (~130 GeV). Furthermore only one Higgs doublet is strictly necessary, because the Yukawa couplings can have a very different structure compared to the MSSM. Using the AdS/CFT correspondence electroweak precision observables can be calculated and shown to be below experimental bounds. The most natural way to generate sparticle masses is through mixing with the composite states. This causes the gauginos and Higgsinos to easily obtain Dirac masses around 200 GeV, while scalar masses can be generated either from extra D-terms or also through mixing with the strongly-coupled states. Finally one of the most interesting predictions of these scenarios is the sizeable decay width of the Higgs boson into a very light gravitino (~ 10^{-4} eV) and a Higgsino.

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The Other Natural Two Higgs Doublet Model

We characterize models where electroweak symmetry breaking is driven by two light Higgs doublets arising as pseudo-Nambu-Goldstone bosons of new dynamics above the weak scale. They represent the simplest natural two Higgs doublet alternative to supersymmetry. We construct their low-energy effective Lagrangian making only few specific assumptions about the strong sector. These concern their global symmetries, their patterns of spontaneous breaking and the sources of explicit breaking. In particular we assume that all the explicit breaking is associated with the couplings of the strong sector to the Standard Model fields, that is gauge and (proto)-Yukawa interactions. Under those assumptions the scalar potential is determined at lowest order by very few free parameters associated to the top sector. Another crucial property of our scenarios is the presence of a discrete symmetry, in addition to custodial SO(4), that controls the $T$-parameter. That can either be simple CP or a $Z_2$ that distinguishes the two Higgs doublets. Among various possibilities we study in detail models based on SO(6)/SO(4)$\times$ SO(2), focussing on their predictions for the structure of the scalar spectrum and the deviations of their couplings from those of a generic renormalizable two Higgs doublet model.

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Emergent Gauge Fields in Holographic Superconductors

Holographic superconductors have been studied so far in the absence of dynamical electromagnetic fields, namely in the limit in which they coincide with holographic superfluids. It is possible, however, to introduce dynamical gauge fields if a Neumann-type boundary condition is imposed on the AdS-boundary. In 3+1 dimensions, the dual theory is a 2+1 dimensional CFT whose spectrum contains a massless gauge field, signaling the emergence of a gauge symmetry. We study the impact of a dynamical gauge field in vortex configurations where it is known to significantly affect the energetics and phase transitions. We calculate the critical magnetic fields H_c1 and H_c2, obtaining that holographic superconductors are of Type II (H_c1 < H_c2). We extend the study to 4+1 dimensions where the gauge field does not appear as an emergent phenomena, but can be introduced, by a proper renormalization, as an external dynamical field. We also compare our predictions with those arising from a Ginzburg-Landau theory and identify the generic properties of Abrikosov vortices in holographic models.

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The Holographic Superconductor Vortex

A gravity dual of a superconductor at finite temperature has been recently proposed. We present the vortex configuration of this model and study its properties. In particular, we calculate the free energy as a function of an external magnetic field, the magnetization and the superconducting density. We also find the two critical magnetic fields that define the region in which the vortex configurations are energetically favorable.

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Baryon physics in a five-dimensional model of hadrons

We review the procedure to calculate baryonic properties using a recently proposed five-dimensional approach to QCD. We show that this method give predictions to baryon observables that agree reasonable well with the experimental data.

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Beyond the Minimal Composite Higgs Model

The Higgs spectrum of the minimal composite Higgs model, based on the SO(5)/SO(4) coset, consists of a unique Higgs doublet whose phenomenology does not differ greatly from the Standard Model (SM). Nevertheless, extensions beyond this minimal coset structure exhibit a richer Higgs spectrum and therefore very different Higgs physics. We explore one of these extensions, the SO(6)/SO(5) model, whose Higgs spectrum contains a CP-odd singlet scalar, eta, in addition to the Higgs doublet. Due to the pseudo-Nambu-Goldstone nature of these Higgs bosons, their physical properties can be derived from symmetry considerations alone. We find that the mass of eta can be naturally light, opening up the possibility that the SM Higgs decays predominantly to the singlet, and therefore lowering the LEP bound on its mass to 86 GeV. We also show that eta can have interesting consequences in flavour-violating processes, as well as induce spontaneous CP-violation in the Higgs sector. The model can also have anomalies, giving rise to interactions between the SM gauge bosons and eta which, if measured at the LHC, would give quantitative information about the structure of the high energy theory.

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Baryon Physics in Holographic QCD

In a simple holographic model for QCD in which the Chern-Simons term is incorporated to take into account the QCD chiral anomaly, we show that baryons arise as stable solitons which are the 5D analogs of 4D skyrmions. Contrary to 4D skyrmions and previously considered holographic scenarios, these solitons have sizes larger than the inverse cut-off of the model, and therefore they are predictable within our effective field theory approach. We perform a numerical determination of several static properties of the nucleons and find a satisfactory agreement with data. We also calculate the amplitudes of ``anomalous'' processes induced by the Chern-Simons term in the meson sector, such as omega -> pi gamma and omega -> 3pi. A combined fit to baryonic and mesonic observables leads to an agreement with experiments within 16%.

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